


Slyth's Story

by Kalgorn



Category: Balto (Movies)
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Love, Murder Mystery, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 01:04:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13602318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalgorn/pseuds/Kalgorn
Summary: In the wake of a horrible attack, Nome no longer feels as safe as it used too after one poor soul is taken from them. It's only just the beginning however. No one could have ever known what was coming."You're still looking at things through the eyes of a dog. Come, take a look through mine. See the world how i see it. See the world through the eyes of a wolf."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm calling this a Balto fanfic, but a better way to describe it would be the Balto Universe is just the setting. I do use some of the characters from the movies, some of them even play pretty big parts in the story, but i introduce several OC that become the main focus.

Chapter 1  
Dusty’s Lament

Nome, Alaska was admittedly a pretty small town. It had a relatively low population but there seemed to be an abnormal amount of dogs. They were the only way for the post to be delivered to and from town. With such reliance on the animals, practically everyone was familiar one way or another with the dogs that made up the mail teams.  
It was usually a pretty happy place to live. The community, both man and dog, felt reasonably comfortable about the town's safety. Bad things didn't happen here very often. Mostly infamous was the outbreak of diphtheria years back. The families that were affected owed a lot to the dog that saved them. Balto had became a hero overnight. That's a story everyone knew. It wasn't long afterwards that he became a father as well. Life was definitely much better for Balto. Time passed and his pups grew up way too fast. They were all deeply impressed by the wolfdog again when he, his son Kodi, Dusty, Ralph, Kirby, and the rest of the team managed to outrun the post by plane. It was a very proud day for the team.

Today, Nome had a completely different tone to it. It was a much more grim atmosphere, almost oppressive. Only days ago, their safe little town had been attacked. Only one life was taken, but it had happened so abruptly and without warning that everyone felt the impact. The peace of mind they had all had about how safe they were was gone now. What if the attack happened again? What would they do if it didn't stop? It was unnerving. People weren't staying outdoors after nightfall anymore.  
Today, was the day the poor soul who had been taken from them was buried. The freshly turned up soil had barely even settled before the snow began to cover it. The grave had been marked with a small stone. Chiseled into the stone in big crude letters was the name ‘KODI’

Everyone who knew him had grieved for him and his family. It was only made worse by the way Kodi had departed this world. He had been savaged something fierce. Broken, beaten and bleeding, his last hours had not been an easy way to go. He was spared a great deal of pain by being euthanized, after everything had been done for him that they could do, it wasn't enough. That didn't make it any easier to accept. It had still felt wrong to do it.  
The only comforting thought was that his suffering was at least over.

“No one deserved it less than him.”  
“Nome won't be the same without him.”  
“I still can't believe he's gone.”

One by one, everyone said their final goodbyes to the dog, either fighting back tears, or unashamedly letting them fall. Balto and Jenna were there, surrounded by their friends and family. Every dog of the sled team was there as well. Supporting each other as they coped with the pain of such a big loss. Jenna, his mother, weeped loudest of all. Balto still appeared to be in shock. His eyes welled up several times but not one tear ever fell. He simply held Jenna while they listened to what everyone had to say about their son.

Emotions conflicted harshly in his chest as words of praise and respect for Kodi reached his ears. Words had utterly failed him, but he was beyond grateful for everyone who was there. Pride swelled inside him, then burst into a terrifying wave of pain of the worst kind. This son of his he was so proud of. . . he would never see him again.

The weight of it threatened to break him. He was certain it would until he finally had to let it out.  
Taking everyone quite by surprise, Balto threw his head up and let out one long, loud, almighty howl. The note carried on and on, conveying every bit of the pain he felt in his heart.  
Some of the dogs who had managed to hold their tears back at this point completely gave in to them. A few even joined in and added their voice to Baltos. His brothers and sisters joined in. Ralph, and Kirby joined as well.

It was a wave of emotion so pure and sad, given life and made into sound. It resounded on them all without mercy. By time Baltos lungs emptied and the sound finally ended, the only one left who still wasn't crying was Balto. Jenna had buried her nose into his chest and sobbed against him.

Silence fell then. Balto bowed his head in respect before giving each and everyone there a look of gratitude. As his eyes moved from sad face to sad face, he began to feel a slight warmth. Dark days may be upon them again, but it was comforting to know he was not alone. Not in the slightest. He smiled.  
It was a weak one, but hope hadn't completely fled from him. In fact, he knew it was all around him.

There was only one person absent from the gathering. Dusty was so beside herself with grief. To see his body again, so broken and lifeless, would have certainly destroyed her sanity. She had been the one who had found him after the attack. She had been the one who dragged him to the hospital. Not once did she leave his side the entire night.

So much happened between them in his final hours. It pained her beyond belief to see him in such pain. Even then, Kodi refused to complain. He was just happy to see her. Just before the end, he had actually confessed his love for her. Dusty’s heart, so heavy with grief and left in literal pieces after his passing, had felt so full of joy to hear him say that. She had never felt love and passion so strongly for someone.

Her mind couldn't let this memory go. It drove white hot knives into her chest every time, but it was stuck on an unending cycle. She would see his eyes staring into hers and she would stare back. Full of hope and certain he was going to be ok. Then she would see his body lying motionless, his eyes shut forever, and she stood over him, unable to come to terms of how this had happened. Anger welled up in her that he had been taken from her so cruelly. Surely there could be no bigger injustice to her.

Sadness, pain, and grief was all she knew anymore now. So complete was her anguish, she couldn't focus on anything anymore. Her mind went back in forth endlessly from fragmented images of Kodi, to long periods of utter numbness. It was like her mind simply could not cope and would literally shut off. Her eyes stared at nothing. Completely empty, still, and unblinking.

No one else knew about the brief time she and Kodi had been together. It crushed everyone when they had found out, but no one completely shut down like she had.

Dusty spent the days sitting in the same spot, not even caring how uncomfortable she became. Though she had been told Kodi was to be buried today, she hardly acknowledged it. If she had, it may have been the very thing to send those agonizing thoughts back to the front of her mind, freshly renewed and back to take even more of Dusty away.

At some point during that day, completely unaware of what was going on at Kodi’s wake, the sound of Balto and all the others howling reached her ears. Her ears twitched once, otherwise, she was completely unresponsive. Then it grew louder as more gave their voice to the call. Her ear twitched again and she blinked.

The haze cleared enough for her to recognize the sound. All hope in the sound was completely lost on her. All she could understand was the agony in the sound. Completely isolated in her home, she cried so fiercely that she lost all consciousness for a few hours.

Later, she felt someone nudge her gently. She opened one red and swollen eye to see Ralph and Kirby standing in front of her. They looked awful. Her mind could barely associate the names with their faces.

“Dusty. . . you should have been there with us today. You shouldn't be alone while you're like this” Ralph's voice sounded hoarse.  
“He's right, you know” Kirby's voice sounded just a hoarse. “None of us should be alone. We're all gunna need help to get through this.”

Dusty couldn't bring herself to speak. It may not have been completely gone yet, but there was an absolute lack of desire to say anything. The only thing she wanted was to be alone. She sniffled and closed her eye.

They both slept beside her that night. Doing their best to console her when her woe threw her back into fitful sobs. When she stilled and went silent, concern filled them. It couldn't be helped however. Any and all mention of Kodi only aggravated her pain.  
They fell asleep uneasily. It was so late by then that it had gone completely dark outside. Moonlight bathed the three of them through the window.

Without knowing why, Dusty stood up. Her legs trembled under her but it meant nothing to her. Nothing did anymore. Just one thing was left in her, one last desire.  
Her whole body shivered once she stepped out into the night. Somehow, she knew where to go. Without looking up once, her paws carried her slowly. She didn't stop until she was there; at Kodi’s grave.

She sat and looked at it passively for a moment. She curled up beside it and lay her head on the mound of turned up soil. Everything important to her lay there with her. Buried and gone forever. The cold wind and snow chilled her body, but she didn't move. Trying to ignore the pain in her chest, she let herself fall asleep there.

The next morning both Ralph and Kirby awoke rather alarmed at Dusty’s absence. With one look at each other, they knew exactly where she would have gone. They hurried off, prepared for the worst. If she had been out all night. . . The thought only made them quicken their pace.

Sure enough, when they approached Kodi’s burial, they found Dusty curled up against the stone with his name on it. Shivering madly but hardly looking bothered by it. Her cheeks were wet with fresh and old tears and she was absently rubbing her nose on the ground in subtle arches, as if she were trying to get closer to him. Altogether, it was a heartbreaking sight.

“Dusty. . . this isn't healthy. You've got to stop before you make yourself sick” Kirby nestled himself against her shuddering body.  
“We're all worried about you, Dusty. You don't have to go through this alone.” Ralph joined them, putting himself against her other side.

If she was even aware they were there, she didn't show it. Their words were falling on deaf ears. She was so far gone at this point that she only heard a couple fragmented bits of their words.  
“stop. . . go. . . alone. . .”  
It barely had any meaning to her anymore. Nothing had meaning anymore. All of that was buried beneath her now. Her body slowly stopped shivering thanks to her friends but, inevitably, her quivering began. After a while that stopped too.

Eventually they made it back home with Dusty. They had to practically carry her the whole way. Her willingness to move her legs that morning was not the same as it was last night. They had to walk on either side of her, keeping her from falling every time she stumbled. With how weak she was, it was incredible she ever made it out there on her own.

It felt like a miracle when they finally got her home and out of the cold. The two male dogs were more than happy to feel the warmth and comfort of home and to finally fill their bellies. Dusty, however, went right back to the same spot she always slept, curled up into a ball, and went straight to sleep. Kirby watched her pitifully.  
“We've got to do something, Ralph. Soon. Or we might. . . we might lose Dusty too” It was difficult to say the words but he knew they were true.  
Ralph nodded his head, looking sadly from Dusty to Kirby.

Another day passed by and Dusty still showed no signs of improving. Her body was beginning to thin, she barely moved at all anymore.  
Their owner finally took her to the vet to find out what was wrong with her but when he brought her back home, she looked just a hopelessly lost as before. The vet had told him that there was in fact, nothing wrong with her. She was one of the healthiest dogs he'd seen. His only suggestion was to up her food. Underfed was the only thing he could see wrong.  
“She won't eat. I've given her food but she won't touch it” he pleaded. The only thing they could do was put her on a soft food diet which could be force fed to her.

The next few days became a routine for them. Dusty steadily thinned more and more. Every night she disappeared and every morning she was found sleeping by Kodi’s grave. Ralph, Kirby and a few other dogs from the team would carry her home and she would remain motionless the whole day. Completely unresponsive to their attempts at comforting her. None of their efforts could even reach her anymore.

Later in the day their owner would force feed Dusty her wet food while the rest of them ate. She didn't even fight it anymore. He would press the food into her mouth and she would swallow, hardly even tasting a bit of it. She would go back to her spot afterwards and curl back up. Sometimes falling asleep, other times only pretending. Without fail however, come nightfall, she would stand up and stumble her way back to Kodi’s grave.

Laying down against it, she felt the all too familiar pang in her chest build up again. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? The will to live was completely gone from her. How could she want to live when every moment of the day was filled with pain? It was unbearable. If she could die, she would be with Kodi again. That was all she wanted. To linger here only meant more suffering.

When the sun came up the next day, she was still awake, hardly moving or making a sound. Her friends that she had all but forgotten about were there for her. A whimper escaped her as they took her away from Kodi again. There was no fight left in her to try to resist.

Instead of taking her home, today they took her somewhere different. An unwelcome warm feeling washed over her when they entered the boiler room. Kirby and Ralph took her to the very front and set her down.  
The chatter had died immediately once they entered. Almost a whole week had passed since Kodi had died and this was the first time most of them had seen Dusty since.  
She was nothing more than a shadow of herself. There was none of the old happiness in her. It was pretty clear to everyone there that she was a dog waiting to die. A low rumble of hushed voices slowly started.

Kirby and Ralph nodded at each other before Kirby stepped forward and cleared his throat.  
“Guys. . . I know we all felt it when we lost Kodi” he paused, looking around at all the faces watching him or looking down at Dusty. “One of us is hurting really bad. I'm worried but more than anything. . . I'm scared. I'm afraid if we don't do something soon, I think, no. I know. I know we'll lose Dusty too.”

The hushed voices quieted as he went on. He paced back and forth, making sure to keep Dusty visible to them all.  
“Nothing could have been done to save Kodi, but I know we can do something to save Dusty. I'm not willing to give up on her” his voice may have sounded nervous when he began but it gained strength as he continued.

Dusty couldn't understand why they were doing this to her. Why was she being brought in front of so many dogs? Why couldn't they just leave her be?  
Kirbys words didn't have much meaning to her, she just wanted this to be over. This and everything else. To put an end to it all. She wanted them to let her go so she could go back to Kodi.  
“Kodi . . . “  
Her ears twitched when Kirby mentioned the name. Her heart banged painfully in her chest.  
“Please make it stop” she pined. Her voice sounded so unlike her own, she didn't recognize that she had even spoken. “I can't stand it any longer.” Her lip trembled, a fresh wave of painful emotions threatening to overtake her again.

Kirby stopped and turned back to her. Before he could react, Ralph was there. The large dog barked his approval. “I can't stand it anymore either, Dusty. Watching you do this to yourself, it's unbearable.” His voice was not unkind.  
“We need you to come back to us Dusty. What would Kodi say if he saw you like this?” Kirby added.

Dusty shook her head, her mouth open like she was trying to say something, but the words wouldn't come out. Her bloodshot eyes looked at Ralph without understanding.  
The other one, Kirby, was there too then. Their words swam in her head, becoming disconnected and turning into a big garbled mess she could only pull a few words out of.  
“Kodi . . . come back . . . it's unbearable” she mumbled the words, barely even audibly.  
Dusty blinked at the two dogs standing over her, feeling afraid and lost. They said something else to her but the haze that clouded her mind was coming back and she couldn't make out anymore of their words.

More dogs showed up and gathered around her. All of them looking at her with odd expressions. She was beginning to feel like some kind of spectacle they were all crowding around to watch. Several more dogs pressed in. What did they want? Beginning to feel trapped, Dusty tried to back away from them but they were behind her now. With no way out, she began to panic. Her eyes darted around at everyone surrounding her, watching their lips move without speaking any words.  
“Please . . . go.” They were the only words that didn't choke her or get stuck in her throat. They came out as a weak but desperate sound.

Almost every dog in the boiler had approached Dusty to support her. Very much like the way they had united around Balto and Jenna when Kodi had been buried. A few dogs had actually left the room.

There was one who hadn't bothered to move yet. He watched Dusty closely from his spot at the back. Maybe it was just him, but he didn't understand how no one else seemed to notice the panic spreading on Dusty’s face.  
However good their intentions were, Dusty was in a right state and this was clearly not helping matters for her. He shook his head and stood up. With one loud bark, he managed to get the rooms attention.

Only when they had all turned around to look at him did he step out of the shadows. When he did, he heard a sudden gasp from Dusty. Her eyes gleamed wetly, staring unblinking at him. The lost and dull eyes she had had moments ago were gone.

That rust-red fur, that powerful build, that handsome face. . . there was only one dog it could be.

  
_It's Kodi!_

  
The impossible thought went through her mind the moment she saw the new dog. All of her fear was abated in an instant. If it weren't for all the dogs around her, she would have run to him then. She tried to call to him but she had no more voice. Her heart leapt when his eyes met hers.

“I don't think you guys are aware of what you are doing to her” He said it calmly, looking at each of them in turn. “No words can mend a broken heart. How is she even supposed to breath with you lot crowding her like that?” Silence fell after his words.

His resemblance to Kodi was not lost on the rest of them. The whole room was temporarily stunned by it. Only Dusty actually believed he was Kodi though. The rest of the room picked up on the subtle differences between them and none of them were broken enough to think a dead dog could be with them again.

Kirby was the one who finally broke the silence.  
“Who . . . are you?” He asked, watching the dog closely.

“I'm Slyth. I'm new here, actually.”

Kirby looked from Slyth to Ralph then turned back to Slyth. Before he could say anything else Slyth spoke again.

“Come on now, are you gonna keep asking me questions or are you gonna give the poor girl some space?” He stepped closer to them.  
A couple dogs did take a few hesitant steps back then. Most of them didn't budge. It was like they thought he was going to attack Dusty if they gave him a chance. Ralph and Kirby were among them.

“What was it you said about a broken heart?” Ralph asked after noticing the look Dusty was giving Slyth. He was the first dog that she actually appeared to see. The blank expression on her face was gone.

Slyth noticed this too but he ignored it for the moment.  
“I didn't know him, but I heard about what happened here.” He began, taking a few steps closer and sitting down. “Your Dusty here must have been in love with Kodi. She can't let go of him because she's too heartbroken to say goodbye. I think she would rather pass on to be with him than do that.” He said the last part slowly, looking closely at Dusty while he did.

“If you didn't know him, then you have no idea how much you look like him, do you?” It was Kirby who spoke this time. “If you know what's wrong with her, do you know how we can help her?”

Slyth had in fact not been aware at all how much he looked like Kodi. But he only shrugged his shoulders at this bit of information.  
“Do I? I'm sorry we never got the chance to meet. What happened to him was awful.” He bowed his head. “I'm sorry to tell you more bad news but, there's nothing you can do for Dusty. Her heart and mind are in pieces right now. It's up to her to decide if she can move on or not.”  
He looked back up at them all, knowing it was not the words they wanted to hear. “She might pull through, or she might not. I will say though, for the third time, give her some space!”

The dogs surrounding Dusty finally backed up. They must have accepted that he wasn't a threat to her or any of them and reasoned that his advice was sound.  
Though they backed up and gave her more room, Kirby and Ralph stayed beside her. Pleased with himself, Slyth stood back up. He was unsure whether to go try and speak to Dusty or leave at this point.  
She still hadn't taken her eyes off him so he decided to go say something to her. If he really did look like Kodi, it stood to reason that his words might get through to her.  
As he approached her, her tail actually began to wag back and forth, thumping weakly against the floor.  
Kirby and Ralph stared at him, but they took a few steps back from her all the same.

She didn't stand up when he reached her, only gaped up at him. She didn't look like she had the strength for it. Tears ebbed on the corners of her eyes. Looking at them, he could tell they used to be beautiful eyes, but so much sadness and pain had stolen much from them. She had the tired look of someone who had lost a lot of weight in a very short period of time. Her fur coat looked like it was thinning as well.  
Slyth licked his lips, trying to say something to her. What do you say to someone who was so sad though?

“Hay Dusty” he started to say, but she cut him off by throwing herself against him more forcefully than he could have believed she was capable of.  
Without a word she wrapped her neck around his and buried her nose in his fur. Rather stunned, it took Slyth a second to realize she was crying. He let her stay there and pour her emotions out into his fur.

Soon he found he had to support her as she leaned more and more against him. It didn't seem like her tears would ever end. They only got stronger and louder. It was some of the most heartbreaking cries he'd ever heard.  
With no attachment to her or the dog she loved so much that he looked like, Slyth began to feel her sorrow cutting into his own chest.  
The pain in her cries was so terrible he was certain it would soon tear even him apart. Tears filled his own eyes despite himself.

It might have gone on for an hour, or it might have gone on for a whole day. Slyth could not have said. Eventually, Dusty did calm down. It wasn't all at once, but slowly. Gradually her bawling turned to sobbing, then to whimpering. Finally she quieted. She wouldn't leave their embrace though. Even after she went silent she still rubbed her nose against his neck, the same way she would against Kodi's grave.

It took Slyth a few minutes to finally pull himself from her. Looking her in the eyes again, he couldn't be sure she would ever be ok again. That much sadness in someone would surely kill them. Something in her eyes had changed though. Were they more focused or were they less?  
His eyes looked sadly into hers, wishing he could do something for her. Maybe the ache he felt in his heart now meant he had taken some of her pain from her. It was comforting to think so.  
“Goodbye, Dusty.” Bowing his head at her, he turned away and gave both Ralph and Kirby a nod before departing the room.

Dusty watched him go feeling weaker than she had ever been before. So much had poured out of her, there wasn't much left. Slyth had done more for her than he could ever know. Her mind was still mixed up but she felt that maybe the haze clouding her thoughts had cleared. Even if it was just the tiniest bit.

“Dusty. . . “ Ralph approached her, looking disturbed.

Dusty’s eyes flickered up to him. Ralph seemed startled that she was actually looking at him. It felt like it had been ages since she had. His face finally clicked in her mind.  
“R-Ralph?”  
He beamed at her. Kirby came up next and was overjoyed when she was able to speak his name too. If only barely.  
“We should get you home, Dusty.” Kirby suggested. Dusty shook her head.  
“No.” She said it as firmly as she could manage. “To him.”

Sometime passed before they managed to get Dusty to Kodi's grave. They sat together in silence looking at it. Both Ralph and Kirby almost expected Dusty to say something, but she didn't. She just lay down between them. For several long moments they waited.

At least an hour passed this way. Dusty never took her eyes off the stone with Kodi's name on it. She surprised them both when she sat back up. They watched her rub her nose against the stone and heard her voice only just barely manage to say “Goodbye, Kodi.”

The next few days that went by showed an alarming change in Dusty. She improved significantly once she had let Kodi go. Still too weak to do much however, she hadn't seen Slyth again since. He had allowed her to finally get some closure. That was ultimately what was eating her up inside. Everything had been taken from her so suddenly, there had been no chance for a goodbye. A terrible emptiness still filled her, but it no was no longer consuming her. That's the way it would probably always be without Kodi.  
One day, she was going to have to say thank you to Slyth.


	2. Dart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Dusty struggles to come to grips with Kodi's death, several plans begin to unfold outside of the town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me just start by saying I struggled hard with writing this chapter. I thought I had it done several days ago but when I read through it to check for errors, I saw that I had contradicted myself on a lot of things. I had to go back and answer a lot of questions I didn't know the answers to yet. Ended up having to rewrite huge pieces of it two or three times to get everything where i liked it.

Chapter Two

  
Dart

 

_This isn't good. This is not good. Oh, this is so_ not _good. He's going to be so angry. . . this wasn't supposed to happen!_

Tonight had actually been a night the jet black female collie had been looking forward to. Now, however, it had changed to terrible dread. She and two others were supposed to meet with their leader, a large white shepherd named Dart, and she couldn't wait to hear his praise for completing their job without a single problem.  
But then she found out that the dog had died. Word of his death had spread fast. The news hit her pretty hard for someone who didn't know the dog.  
If he was dead, then they had failed. She wasn't yet aware why he was so important, but she had been told not to kill him, and now he was dead. Whatever the reason was, that didn't matter to her. She had failed.  
She had spent most of the last few days in the boiler room, keeping her ears open for any mention of what had happened to the dog. At first, it seemed like an odd coincidence that the very same night they had pulled off their plan, a dog named Kodi had been euthanized.  
The more she listened, the more she started to feel like something wasn't quite right.  
One week went by and finally the morning came. She had found a meal and brought it back into the boiler room with her.  
As she ate, she listened to a group nearby converse about a dog named Dusty.

“She hasn't been seen since he died.”  
“I heard she's been sleeping at his grave every night since they buried him.”  
“She's in a right state, the poor dear.”

  
_Poor girl. . ._

  
They continued talking about what had happened to Kodi, like it was the first time they had heard about it.  
“Why did he get put down anyway?”  
“Collapsed lung I think.”  
“How could you tell that?”  
“Saw him. Before they put him in the ground.”  
“No you didn't.”  
“I did. One side of his body was all swollen up. He looked like he'd been through the mill.”  
“What do you reckon happened to him?”  
“Dunno, couldn't say for certain. He was pretty banged up.”  
“Do you think he was abused?”  
“Possibly. Something got a hold of him. Beat the hell out of him from the look of him. Or maybe. . . someone.”  
She almost choked on her food at this.

  
_It can't be. . ._

Just then, the door swung open and three more dogs walked in. A large brown dog, an even bigger gray dog, and between them, what looked like the ghost of what used to be a dog.  
Without knowing who the other two were, there could be no mistaking who the third was.  
In a blink, all the chatter stopped. After so much noise around them, such silence seemed deafening.  
She watched them carry Dusty to the front. What they said had very little meaning to her, but it was plain as day that Dusty was miserable.  
Suddenly, dogs all around her were getting up and surrounding Dusty. She was one of the few who didn't. All she could do was watch from her  
spot in the shadows.  
When Slyth stepped forward, her jaw dropped. Her worst fears confirmed. Unable to bare watching anymore, that was when she made her exit. Leaving the remainder of her meal behind.  
The rest of her day was spent in various states of sickness and worry. Her mind played that night over and over, trying to puzzle out how it had gone so wrong. The whole while, watching the sun rise and fall. At last, as the sky darkened steadily into nightfall, It was time to go. At first she walked slowly until she left the town borders. Then she jogged and eventually sped up to a sprint.  
They were all supposed to meet in a private location out in the rocky hills and bluffs about three miles away, well away from any prying ears. The closer she got, the more uneasy she felt.  
She looked around warily once she had arrived at their normal place. It was a small relief to see she was the only one there, however briefly.  
In next to no time, the other two dogs showed up. Both of them looking about as bad as she felt. They looked at each other, but said nothing.  
Her ears flicked up at the sound of approaching steps from behind her. They all bowed their heads then. Dart had arrived.

“You are without a doubt, the dumbest dogs i've ever met.” Every one of his words seethed with malice. “I wonder if you even realize how _badly_ you blundered this incredibly _simple_ task. . .” The large dominating shepherd looked intensely at each of the dogs in front of him with an expression of sheer loathing.  
“I thought I made it _quite_ clear that you were not to kill him.” His voice was completely calm, despite the anger his words carried. He kept his voice low, closer to a whisper. Which was actually, somehow, worse than him shouting.  
One of the three cowering dogs in front of him foolishly spoke up then. “But, boss we - “  
“BUT . . . what?” He interrupted the dog, rounding on him viciously. Unmistakable rage in his expression. The dog, a mixed grey male, realizing his mistake a moment too late, didn't respond. He shrank down and turned his head away.  
“I believe you had something you wanted say, Gabriel?” The large shepherd growled, his face mere inches away. There was no response. Just a small, terrified whimper.  
He stood over him, teeth showing, daring him to speak again. When the dog didn't, he stepped away, completely disgusted.  
“Pathetic” He spat, then looked at the other two dogs who immediately averted their eyes.  
“Perhaps one of you have something you want to say?” He now wore a cold smile.  
Silence hung thickly in the air for several long moments. Then, surprisingly, the smaller brown male in the middle, a husky, stepped forward.  
“Yes, Storm?”  
“Dart, I mean sir, we. . . we. . .” It looked like his courage had failed him before he could finish. Neither could he stand to look back at him any longer.  
“Yes?” Dart repeated, now approaching him.  
Storm stuttered a few times then shook his head. Finally, he stomped his paw forcefully into the snow “Sir, we didn't kill him!”  
“And yet he _is_ dead.” Dart was rather calm now, like he had expected this. His eyes narrowed. “Tell me, then, how exactly did that come to be. . .”  
Storm flinched at his words. His mouth hanging open, a look of regret falling on him. “I. . . I don't know, sir.”  
Dart rounded on him at these words.  
“Now, imagine that. You don't know. . .”  
Storm winced and retreated back.  
Dart stepped away, looking at both Storm and Gabriel with revulsion. He turned to the last dog. “Ah. . . Nikki.”  
She was the only one who didn't cower when he spoke. It wasn't fear in her eyes, not completely. it was more like shame.  
“Maybe you would like to explain it to these two then.” It sounded like a question, but she knew it wasn't.  
She met his gaze for a moment, then bowed her head. Speaking to the ground, rather than any of them in a trembling and low voice. “He died of his wounds.”  
The silence fell heavily again on them all. Nikki’s legs began to shake under the weight of it and Darts stare.  
“Exactly. . .”  
Dart paced around her a few times, hardly paying any more attention to the other two. The look on her face looked more and more pained with each step that crunched into the frozen snow.  
“I wonder if you are even aware of what else you did wrong.”  
Nikki couldn't bare to look up at him. She knew alright, but she couldn't stand to admit it. The iciness of his words cut into her and she trembled, fully expecting him to hit her.  
“Yes. You do know. Of course you would Nikki.” He reluctantly turned to the other two dogs. “Can either of you two tell me?”  
Gabriel and Storm looked up then, both of them looking lost and stunned.  
“That's what i thought. I'll put it this way. I told you to get rid of a dog for me, a certain wild dog. One that you have seen before in fact. What you actually did, was kill a local dog. One who had absolutely nothing to do with your job.”  
He grew visibly more and more heated as he spoke, now pacing back and forth from Gabriel, to Storm, to Nikki, and back to Gabriel. Both Gabriel and Storm still looked lost, or were in denial.  
It was Nikki who finally spelled it out for them. “We attacked the wrong dog.”  
At first, Dart didn't say anything. He stopped in front of her and looked her over.  
“Right you are, Nikki.” He felt suddenly annoyed at the pained expression on her face.  
“That dog. . .” Dart began, lifting one of his paws up and examining a claw interestedly.  
“Wasn't. . .” he suddenly raised his paw.  
“Slyth!” He then hit Nikki so hard, she was knocked to the ground.  
She cried out, three long cuts burning on her cheek from the blow. He stood over her and pressed his paw to her throat threateningly. She didn't make one move to fight back. It was like she felt that she deserved this. The pain she felt went deeper than just physical.  
Dart didn't let her back up for several long minutes, practically nose to nose with her. He could see a lot of emotions battling each other in her eyes but did not care. Not then at least, he was actually kind of enjoying it. No, he was really enjoying it.  
He bared his teeth, daring her to say something else. All he needed was one more reason and he might just end her life right here. A few tears welled up in her eyes and her lip trembled but she didn't make a single sound. It felt like ages went by before Dart finally got off her. He pulled his paw away and stepped over her.

When Nikki got back to her paws, she looked mortified. She put one of her paws against her stinging, bleeding cheek, then drew it away. The sight of her own blood made her cringe.  
Gabriel's eyes shot back and forth from Nikki to Dart then to Storm. Trying to make sense of what he had just heard.

“But we followed him. We made sure that it was Slyth before we did anything.” It was Gabriel this time. Again, speaking without thinking. “He looked just like Slyth.”  
Unfortunately for him, Dart had ran out of patience with this and he had just stopped in front of Gabriel.  
Dart hit him so fast and so hard, Gabriel had no time to react. His body dropped like a rock.

Gabriel's world went spinning then. He barely had time to think before he felt one clawed paw press down very firmly on his cheek, pressing his face into the snow. He began to yell when he felt the claws sink deep into his flesh.  
Nikki and Storm looked away, wincing at the dogs tortured sounds.  
“If you're not going to use your eyes, I don't think you need them.” Dart seethed into his ear.  
His claws began to rake across Gabriel's face, slowly cutting their way to his eye.  
Gabriel felt the sudden warmth and wetness on his face as the blood began to flow down his cheek and over his muzzle and even into his eye. Just when he was certain Dart would close it forever, he felt some deep seeded courage he had never known was there well up in him. Without thinking, he reached one paw up and sank his claws into some part of Dart. Wherever he had found the courage to do it, he must have also found the strength. With a tremendous effort, he managed to push Dart off him. When he found himself back on his paws, he almost moved to attack Dart. Anger burned in him almost as bad as his face. Somehow, he resisted the urge. Maybe because he knew he couldn't beat Dart, or maybe because things started spinning again.

Dart snarled and jumped back from Gabriel. More surprising still was the sudden laughter that burst from him audibly. There wasn't a trace of anger in the look Dart now gave the dog before him. He was smiling, looking delighted by what had just happened.  
“Well, well, well. Gabriel. I'm shocked! You do have some fight in you after all!”  
Gabriel had no response. He panted from the effort and looked back at Dart stoically out of one eye, half his face matted with blood.  
“You should have let me take the eye. Pity. That's a good look for you. Now you look more like someone I wouldn't want to mess with.” Dart flashed a toothy smile at him.  
Gabriel still said nothing.  
“You seem to have finally learned how to hold your tongue as well. That's very good. I think you're not as hopeless as I had thought.”  
Dart looked over to Storm and help up his blood stained paw “Anything you care to add, Storm? Maybe you'd like one to match Nikki and Gabriel here. . .”  
Storm looked terrified by the very thought. He shook his head slowly from side to side. “N-no, sir.”

Dart rolled his eyes and turned away from them. The fun was gone now. He was done with them. Without even turning to look at them again, he barked one time. “Go.”  
Then, almost like an afterthought “Not you, Nikki.”  
He waited for the sound of Gabriel and Storm’s steps to fade away before turning around to look at her. Snow still clung to her fur in patches here and there. Her cheek was still bleeding too. Small red drops fell from her face as he watched her. She met his gaze and stepped closer to him.  
“You're hurt.” Her voice was small and there was real, genuine concern in it. She cast her eyes down to Dart’s shoulder where Gabriel had opened up a long jagged gash. His blood trickled down his arm to his paw where it mingled with Gabriel's blood.  
There was something to be said about the fact that she was more concerned about Dart’s wound than the one he had inflicted on her.  
Dart looked down at it for the first time, as if he only just noticed. He shrugged, thinking nothing of it.  
“Nice one from Gabriel, the brainless wonder.”  
Nikki bent her head down towards the wound to lick it clean but Dart pushed her back with one paw.  
“That won't be necessary Nikki.”  
She frowned and started to say some kind of objection but Dart cut her off.  
“That's not what I had you stay behind for.” For a moment, he actually sounded kind. His smirk fell to a frown when another drop of blood dripped from her fur, drawing his eyes back to her face and what he'd done to her.  
“You know I hate it when you make me hurt you.” He almost sounded regretful now.  
Nikki smiled “I don't mind. I don't like it either, but I know you only hit me when I deserve it.”  
“Yes. . . only when you force me too, and you definitely had it coming to you tonight.”  
Nikki bowed her head.  
“But you already knew that. . . of course you did.” His voice had gone back to its normal cold tone.  
“I hope you understand how much this. . . complicates things.” He breathed.  
She shuffled her paws, clearly fighting the urge to speak.  
“I would have expected nothing more from those two. But not you Nikki. . . I'm very disappointed in you.”  
The words seemed to hurt her more than if he had hit her again. She broke her silence then, unable to contain the words any longer.  
“Let me fix it! I can do it, I can make it right.” She sounded determined. The pained expression transforming into an intense look that masked any and all pain she might have still felt. It made Dart chuckle.  
“How exactly do you plan to bring back the dead?”  
Not to be outdone, Nikki shook her head. “There's another way.” Dart didn't respond so she continued. “I don't think Slyth even suspects our mistake. I thought he might but when I saw him in town today, he only talked to some girl who looked pretty upset about the dog that died.”  
“The dog you killed, you mean.”  
Nikki winced at his words, but nodded her head all the same.  
“So you think you deserve a second chance?”  
Nikki nodded her head again. “I know I do, and I am going to go alone this time.”  
Dart laughed. “Oh Nikki, are you trying to impress me? Did Gabriel make you jealous?”  
Nikki actually laughed with him this time. “You know what I can do.” A sudden light sparked in her eyes. The suggestive tone of her voice was not lost on Dart. He rolled his eyes.

“Believe me, we both know what you can do.” There was a tone of disinterest in his voice now.  
“I don't think you do, Dart. You seem to have forgotten. Perhaps you'd like a. . . refresher.”  
A subtle giggle had made it's way into her voice.  
Dart hit her again. This time not nearly as hard as before. He didn't draw blood with this strike. It was just enough to make her hold her tongue. She didn't even look hurt by it, just disappointed.  
“Stay focused Nikki. Tell me, what are you planning to do?” Dart pressed, acting as if nothing had just happened.

Nikki looked away from him. “I'm going to do what i do best. I'm gonna lay a trap he won't know he's caught in until it's too late, and then,” she turned her eyes back to Dart “my love, you and I can handle him.” There wasn't a trace of doubt in the way she said it. Like it had already been successful in her mind.  
“What kind of trap, I wonder.” The amused look he gave her said he already knew.  
“Considering how bad you've already messed this up, I hesitate to let you try this again. You sound almost too confident in your plan.”  
Nikki stood up straight and met his eyes.  
“If you doubt me, let me prove myself.”  
She said it so matter of factly, Dart had no more objections. He nodded his head. “Very well, then.”

Their conversation seeming to be over, Nikki rose and turned to leave, still feeling misery and disappointment bubbling up in her stomach. She hadn't gone more than a few paces before she heard Dart speak again behind her however.  
“I thought you said you wanted to prove yourself. Why don't you. . . refresh my memory.” A sly smile spread devilishly across his face.  
Nikki felt the bubble in her erupt into fierce longing and need. The same grin appearing on her as she turned back to the large shepherd.  
“Oh this time, I'm going to make sure you never forget again.”

Afterwards, Dart did let her clean his wound. He even cleaned hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I'll go ahead and let you know, some chapters may be more adult than others. I kind of just let the story flow. Sometimes what i write is far from the way it was in my head.


	3. Fatal Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story continues to develop as we find out more about what happened to Kodi and what happened to Gabriel

Chapter Three

Fatal Friends

 

“Dis! Come and take a look at this!”  
Despite how late the hour was, two black and gray dogs found themselves miles away from home. The one who had spoken and now nosed a set of large prints in the snow, was a large female with icy blue eyes. Her companion, the one she named Dis, was also a female who stood almost as tall as her.

Her appearance was only subtly different. She looked down at the set of prints with bright golden eyes instead of blue, and her coat was definitely more partial to the vivid gray. Her face wasn't as thin either.  
“Blitz, can we please just go back?”  
She turned her muzzle away from the prints in disinterest. They were too big to be what they were searching for.  
“It's late, my paws are sore, and I'm tired.”

They had covered miles through the snow and trees and endured relentless cold blasts of wind in almost complete darkness, except for the moonlight that bathed them, making their coats gleam.

Blitz turned her head back to Dis, a frustrated growl rumbling in her throat, her sharp white teeth showing.  
“If the day ever comes when I'm the one who's missing, I hope you don't give up so quickly on finding me.”  
She turned to follow the direction the tracks marked. Dis may not have noticed, but her keen nose had found it. At last, she had found it. It was a very weak scent, but it was there all the same, maybe a day or so old.

Dis snorted at this, but continued to follow beside Blitz.  
“Come on, give me a break! He’s only been gone one day. Why do you even think he's missing?” Clearly, her concerns were not the same as Blitz’s.

Blitz was beginning to grow tired of the other dogs complaints. She growled again in response, which quieted Dis for awhile. They kept going, following the path Blitz’s nose led them on in almost complete silence except for the sound of running and dripping water that grew louder and louder the closer they got.  
When they came upon the river, the scent turned and followed it up stream curiously. Blitz found this extremely odd. She had expected it to turn downstream which would have taken them to a more familiar place, one of their old haunts in fact. Why it went in the opposite direction was just another question bursting in her head.  
It led them farther and farther out around two bends in the river until at one point, it abruptly disappeared.  
She finally stood up and shook her head, the weariness she felt appearing on her face for a moment.  
Dis clicked her tongue at Blitz and stood by her, but didn't say anything. Her desire to continue this fools search had faded away a long time ago. No matter how much her paws protested, she wouldn't abandon Blitz though. That didn't stop her from making it obvious how much she didn't care to continue this.  
She bit Blitz’s fur and tugged her back from the water. “Don't be thick, Blitz.”

“He didn't come back last night. For someone like him, that's unusual.” Blitz finally spoke, meeting her eyes just long enough to see the impatience in her friend's expression.  
Dis turned away, rolling her eyes, and pressed her nose to the ground, feigning interest in finding the scent her nose had never picked up.  
“Maybe. . . it's still only one day. Are you that worried about him?” Her tone sounded sarcastic, but it changed at her question.

Blitz didn't miss it. Her cheeks rose into a smirk, peering amusedly at Dis.  
“Dis. . . is that jealousy I'm hearing?”

Dis snorted scornfully. “Really now, Blitz. I just told you not to be thick. Then you go and ask something stupid like that.”  
She put a paw on Blitz’s shoulder and pushed her away. “Maybe I need to rethink this whole friendship thing with you. I can't have it known I'm friends with a duffer like you.”

Blitz was grateful for the distraction from the worry eating away at her. Her playful grin turned to a cheerful smile without her consent. She and Dis had known each other since they were pups and had gone through everything in life together. Even with how annoyed she was with her complaining, there wasn't another dog out there she'd rather have at her side.  
“A duffer, am I? Well I never knew how much of a baby you are. Whining this whole time about your paws hurting.” Blitz held up her own sore paws and put on an exaggerated pouting face. “You sound just like a pup!”  
The words might have been insulting if it weren't for the giggle in her voice which Dis immediately joined in on.  
“You got a lot of nerve calling me a pup, you know that right?” All anger in her voice completely discredited by her own laughter. She gave Blitz a very unbelievable glare and lowered her body ready to pounce.

Blitz spun around, swatting Dis in the face with her tail. She gave up the effort of looking mad at her friend, turning her thin body and flicking her paw a few times, daring her to try it.

Blitz may have had keener senses than Dis, but Dis had all the strength and speed Blitz did not. Blitz was barely ready for it when Dis lunged. Throwing her body at the dog in front of her. Blitz tried to dodge, but was too slow. Much too slow.  
Dis’s paws collided with her and they both fell back. Rolling, flipping, and sliding, they laughed all the way down until the both splashed right into the river.  
The freezing water immediately soaked through their fur. Both of them immediately abandoned their fight and swam back to dry land. In their confusion, they ended up on the opposite bank of the river.

As soon as they had both shaken the water from their bodies, there was an immediate change in Blitz. She lowered her head back to the ground, her nose shuffling through all the smells she picked up until it honed in on the same scent again.  
“Why would he cross the river?”  
Dis was the one asking now. Her tone had changed as well. Not only could she smell it now, but they were both unsettled by the presence of another smell. This trail was much much more fresh. Barely more than a few hours they guessed, but the smell of blood was mingled with it horribly now.  
“He’s hurt!” Blitz cried, her playful mood completely forgotten.  
Dis was the same way, despite how nonchalant she had been about the search only minutes ago.  
“Blitz. . .” she said, pointing her paw to a small wet puddle of blood beside a fresh set of prints, exactly the size they were looking for. Quite a lot of her pride had been hurt badly, giving in to concern for the time.

The sight of it terrified Blitz and she set off at once. No longer having to follow the scent, but the trail of blood that had been left in it's wake. Drops of it had trailed over roots, branches, bushes, puddled up in small terrible scarlet pools under tree trunks, and even smeared across the grass.

Blitz followed it, increasingly more and more alarmed by it all.  
Dis had actually noticed something this time that Blitz had overlooked. Right when they had picked up the scent, Dis had started to follow it upstream as well. What was more strange than the fact that it had crossed the river, was that it also went downstream.  
In her mind she tried to work it all out, but when she saw the blood, a heavy sense of foreboding hit her in the chest and the questions gave in to concern.

Blitz found a clump of reddish brown fur in the bark of a tree, blood also surrounding it, like he had fallen against the tree for support. This was only one among many they found as they went.  
The sense of an ill omen pressing over them more and more. What disturbed the two dogs most was the sheer amount of blood.  
“He's hurt badly. . .” Blitz’s voice cracked, stopping at another set of paw prints. These were smeared with red and pink now. It also looked like one of his paws was dragging.

They were still following the river, but the tracks swayed this way and that, once there was a large imprint in the snow of its body, a long red line spread across it.  
“He stumbled and fell here.” Dis said, looking up from the tracks. “He can't be far from here.”  
The track actually went on for much longer than either of them would have believed. They noticed that the tracks continued in a pattern that repeated itself. For several paces it moved in a straight line, each paw print clear, then they became harder to make out when his paws dragged through the snow, leaving it in mounds instead of tracks. They swayed back and forth, like he was fighting to not lose his balance. An effort he failed at each time.  
Images flashed in Blitz’s mind each time they saw where he fell. She could almost picture the dog struggling to stay on his paws and collapsing each time.  
It startled her when she felt Dis bite her fur and tug. “Blitz. . .”  
It stopped her, and right away she saw why Dis had. They had finally reached the end of the tracks.  
Lying beside the river, she spotted a motionless lump. Against the blank white canvas of snow that surrounded them, his dark grey coat distinguished by the reddish-brown splotches was unmistakable. The fear that Blitz had been fighting off only by focusing on following the trail, rather than what was at the end of it, had clamped firmly down on her, rooting her to the spot.  
Dis nudged her with her muzzle then. “Come on.” Without waiting for Blitz to respond, she padded over to the fallen dog. Her eyes searched him for any sign of life, fully expecting the worst. She was deeply relieved when she got close enough to hear his breathing. He appeared to have lain down to drink from the river and dozed off. He looked oddly peaceful with his face rested between his paws. One paw was its usual gray, but the other was a much darker shade, wet with blood that went all the way up his arm and shoulder. It looked like the blood had been it's heaviest at his neck, but the terrible wound went from his jaw, just below his ears and went all the way up his face, stopping right behind his eye.  
Dis cringed and looked away, horrified. Her stomach turned and for a second she thought she was going to be sick. She turned back to Blitz who still stood frozen in place.  
“Blitz, he's alive!”

/\/\/\/\/\/\

After Dart had dismissed Storm and Gabriel from their meeting, neither one of them hesitated to leave. Not even stopping to consider what Dart had in store for poor Nikki.  
They didn't speak at all as they went, slowly treading the same miles back home. Storm lead the way and Gabriel followed behind. It seemed that Storm was not comfortable at all around Gabriel, he kept glancing back over his shoulder and then picking up his pace whenever he saw they were close. It would have amused Gabriel, but he was in a lot of pain. He was freezing, but half of his face still blazed horribly.  
He kept his head down and stared at his paws,. doing his best to hide his discomfort.

Once they reached the river, they split up. While they were still miles from home, they had been told not to be seen together by Dart. The river was the point where they met and where they were to separate. Storm looked very grateful for it. He ran off without even looking at Gabriel.  
He stopped and stood there for a minute and watched Storm go. For such a slow pace, he,was feeling very out of breath.

He allowed himself to lean against one of the tall trees looming over him. As tired as he felt, he almost could have fallen asleep right there. But just before the fatigue took him away, he forced himself to get moving again.  
In next to no time, he had to stop and steady himself against another tree. He only lingered long enough to steady himself, unsure if he could fight off the exhaustion he felt a second time.

His thoughts disappeared into a blurred mess that made sense to no one but himself.

  
_Why is everything getting so cold?_

  
It had been cold before, but he could hardly keep himself from shivering now.

  
_I'm so tired. . . I can barely lift my paws anymore. . ._

  
His whole body began to feel like a heavy burden, his legs could hardly support the weight anymore. They shook like mad with each step.

  
_I'm so thirsty. . . maybe I should stop just for a quick drink. . ._

  
It was a sorely tempting idea, but he didn't trust himself to get back up if he fell.

Just when he felt his legs would surely give out under him, everything went blurry. He blinked, and everything returned to focus, then blurred again.  
The world suddenly turned on its side then. Before he could put together any kind of thought about this, he felt his body collide with the frozen ground.

He was barely aware of what was happening around him anymore. It hadn't even dawned on him just how much he had bled out. All he knew was the intensity of his pain had disappeared to barely more than a dull throb, and he didn't feel so cold anymore. His body though. . . never had it been so hard for him to move. He felt a funny disconnect from it actually. It made him laugh.  
Laughing made him feel good, so he kept on.

A few thoughts came to his mind that made him laugh even more. He saw Dart lift one large paw up and slap Nikki, he saw two similar looking female dogs chasing each other, he saw the one with blue eyes and softer features tackle him and they went rolling and laughing, he saw himself knock a dog down into the dirt and snow, he saw Storm attacking the dog again and again while he held the dog down. He felt the satisfying crack of the dog's ribs breaking one by one under his paws. He heard his and Storm’s laughter and even faintly heard the dog's cries.  
“Not Slyth.” Was all he managed to say before finding to all so hilarious he started laughing even harder.

At some point during all this, he managed to push himself to his paws. As he walked and stumbled on, he kept breaking into fresh bouts of laughter. It was simply too funny to him, they hadn't just killed a dog, they had killed the wrong dog.  
“What rotten luck!” The absurdity of two dogs looking so similar that something like that had happened cracked him up.

The only reason he stopped laughing at this was because his brain had just made a connection between those last few thoughts. The two female dogs he had just seen.  
“They're my friends. . .”  
A vision of either of them being attacked the way they had attacked that dog played out in his mind and it immediately silenced him.  
“No” he growled after another minute of stumbling through the snow.  
“I won't let it happen to them. . .”  
He imagined seeing Dart on top of them, his paw held up to strike them both down. Anger bubbled up in Gabriel and he pounced on the large shepherd. In a haze of teeth and blood and claws, he closed his jaws around Darts throat and bit through it like it was nothing.  
A surge of excitement went through his bones at the fantasy. Yes, if Dart or anyone else came near his friends, the bloodlust would be upon him and he would slay them all.

Something came up and hit him again then. He felt the snow around his body hugging him and filling his vision. It took him a few seconds to realize he had fallen again. This time, he knew he wouldn't be getting back up.  
Something had carries him the last quarter mile or so, but now it felt like it was holding him firmly down to the ground.

  
_Just like I did to him. . ._

As exhausted as he felt, he had never known thirst like he felt then. He couldn't have stood up again, but he had just enough strength left in him to pull his body a couple feet to the riverbed.  
He lowered his head to the water, but before he took a drink, he saw something in the water that made him gasp.

A dog peered back up at him. Half of its face looked normal, deadly tired, but still normal. The other half its face was covered in dark, matted fur, one of its eyes was swollen shut, and it looked like someone had tried to claw away the flesh. Even as he watched, several more drops of blood dripped out of his fur and hit the water, distorting the dog’s features.  
He realized then that it was his reflection he was looking at. He stared, somewhere between horror and amazement.

‘Thanks, Dart.’ He grumbled, then pressed his nose to the water and began to lap up the cold water. It felt like ice going down and filling his empty belly, but he couldn't stop himself from drinking until his stomach bulged.  
The water cleared his thoughts enough to know what falling asleep here would mean, but he also accepted that outcome on some level. He wasn't sure he liked the dog he was looking at in the water.

  
_Ugly. . ._

He dipped one of his paws into the water. Intentionally distorting the reflection so he didn't have to see it anymore. He thought he saw something else when he did though, but it was a thought he barely registered. His head lowered to the ground and his eye dropped shut. Sleep was on him immediately.  
The last thing he thought he saw in the waters wavy surface was a wolf. A big, grey, blood-stained wolf, looking at him with one half open light green eye.

 

/\/\/\/\/\/\

 

Blitz approached slowly. Relieved to hear he was alive, but still afraid of what might happen. The closer she got to him, the worse he looked. His face was so mangled, it hardly looked like him anymore. He looked so terrible that despite the fact that he was alive now, she was truly uncertain how much longer he would be.  
“He can't have been here long" Dis pointed out, stepping back from the dog to let Blitz get a closer look.

". . . Gabe?" She spoke so gently it sounded like she was afraid speaking too loudly would break him. She lowered her head and pressed her muzzle to his, withdrawing it almost immediately with a sharp breath. He felt as cold as ice.  
"He's freezing!" She shivered as if only just noticing how cold she was herself. Like that brief touch had been enough to drain every bit of warmth out of her.

Worry and fear for their poor friend gripped them both by the heart. They looked at each other and could see that the same question was on both of their minds. What happened to him?

Looking at the grotesque wound, Dis remembered the prints from earlier she had thought nothing of. The one she knew were too big to belong to a dog. But what did they belong to then? Gabriel had clearly found out, and he was very unfortunate because of it.

Blitz pressed her muzzle to Gabriel's again.  
"Gabe. . . wake up.“  
He didn't.  
Her frown deepened and she tried again. "Gabe, you have to wake up."  
Again, nothing.  
On the verge of tears and desperate, she tried again, shaking him with a paw now.  
"Gabe, please wake up!"  
Still, nothing.  
She might have cried then if it hadn't been for Dis. She padded up to her and put a paw on her shoulder.  
"Blitz. . ."

It was enough for Blitz, she closed her eyes and dropped her head. Nothing would come from panicking, so she took a few breaths and tried to think.  
"We can't leave him here, Dis. We gotta get him somewhere warm."

Dis peered around them, but there was nothing around them that would offer much for shelter. Just a lot of trees and snow.  
"Well, have you got any ideas? I think we're too far from home to get him there, and there's nothing here. Crossing the river again isn't an option either. . ." Her voice trailed off when she looked back at Blitz.

Blitz was staring at her like she was some kind of spectacle. The kind you want to look away from, but cannot.  
"What?"  
"Nothing" Blitz said, shaking her head and looking back down at Gabriel.

She noticed then something peculiar about the dog that she hadn't ever seen before. Maybe it was just a trick of the light, the way the moonlight reflected off the glassy surface of the river and onto his face. There was something wild about the injured side of his face. Still Gabriel, but also not. Half of his face was the sweet dog she had known almost as long as Dis, the other looked like some kind of beast she would have been afraid of.  
Guilt filled her at this thought. He was her friend, not some kind of cruel animal, and he needed her help. She couldn't waste anymore time thinking about what to do.  
She knew what to do. Dis had just given her the idea. She was right about them being too far away to get him home, but there was another place. Somewhere they hadn't visited in ages.

“Dis, I need your help moving him. . . It's not far from here.”  
Blitz bent down and started to bite down on part of Gabriel's neck fur. The dog was much too heavy for her to pull on her own, but Dis was much stronger. With her help they should be able to move his body somewhere safe.  
Before she could move him however, Gabriel stirred. He grunted and one of his paws twitched and his tail beat against the snow.  
This startled them both. Despite his condition, he had looked rather calm, now it looked like a nightmare was upon him.  
“Gabe!” Blitz pressed her muzzle to his again and put a paw on him.

For a second, she saw her friends tormented expression, hard lines of pain and anguish etched into his face. Then his body jerked and his eye popped open. Blitz could see every bit of the fear he felt then. It only lasted a second, then she began to feel it herself.  
She didn't know why, but then it dawned on her in a flash of realization. She was looking at Gabriel, but it wasn't Gabriel looking at her. She shivered, feeling her blood turn as cold as the snow around them.

Gabriel stood up suddenly then. Staring Blitz down, not even seeing her or Dis behind her. His body was awake, but it was clear that his mind was somewhere else. Neither Blitz or Dis could tell what exactly he was seeing. He was glaring at Blitz, but it looked like he was looking at something much farther away.

His lips pulled back and bared his teeth viciously. His nose wrinkled into a snarl and without pausing, he pounced. Right onto Blitz, knocking her down and pressing his paws to her chest.  
Blitz whimpered and struggled against him, trying to free herself and swallow the fear she felt. But it was no good. His weight was too much for her, it was suffocating her.

As soon as Gabriel landed on Blitz, Dis tackled Gabriel in a blur of black and grey. She knocked the big dog off Blitz and they both rolled.  
When they stopped, Dis had landed on top of him. She jumped away from him immediately and ran back to Blitz.  
“What do you think you're doing!” Dis growled, looking thoroughly shocked by him.

Whatever had come over Gabriel just then, it was fading fast from him. He had been able to stand up, but now it was a struggle for him to not collapse again. He blinked, and his eye changed completely.  
It was still the same shade of light green, but there was no more fear or anger in it anymore. He looked confused and tired now. His eye darted back and forth between Blitz and Dis.

“What. . . what. . . where. . .” He stammered breathlessly.

Blitz climbed back up on her paws behind Dis, staring wide-eyed at Gabriel. Uncertainty gnawed at her as she watched him sway on the spot, legs trembling and his ears laying flat. She had just watched him change again and was now unsure who this dog really was. The Gabriel she knew would have never done what he just did. Yet, this was Gabriel. She knew that, there was no mistaking it. But something really bad had happened to him and it looked like he was hurt in more ways than just physical.  
“Gabe?” she asked, her voice shaking as much as his legs

Her voice made all the difference to Gabriel in his half-conscious state.  
He felt lost. Things were too blurry for him to make out who these two were and his body was far too weak to put up any kind of fight. His mind could hardly connect anything around him to anything that made sense.  
Quite literally lost in the dark, everything changed when he heard Blitz’s voice.

The chaotic thoughts that threatened to tear apart his sanity all came to an abrupt stop. The image of his two friends was the only thing that came to mind.  
Dis swam in and out of focus, but Blitz’s soft features and stunning blue eyes stood out above everything else. A heat sparked in him under her gaze. He wanted to go to her.

“Blitz. . . I . . . I . . .”  
He tried to speak, but the words completely failed him. Though his throat was too dry to speak more than a few small words, he felt no thirst to drink.  
Some small measure of his strength had returned to him. It took a lot of effort, but he managed one step without collapsing, and then another.  
The whole world around him stopped when Blitz approached him. Though he had memorized her face many times over, it never had the same glowing beauty in his mind. The weight of it took his breath away every time their eyes met.

Blitz and Dis were bursting with questions, even though he didn't look like he could have managed to answer even one of them. The questions could come later. Right now, they had to do something to get him out of the cold.  
Dis followed Blitz’s lead and went to him.

Their timing couldn't have been any better. As soon as they reached him, one of his legs bent under him and Dis put her shoulder under him just in time to catch him and stop his fall. When she did, she realized the truth in Blitz's words. He really was freezing. She was cold too, but even to her Gabriel felt dead with cold.  
He was also dead weight on her until he put his own paw back under him. As strong as she was, Gabriel was a lot heavier than he looked. She grunted from the effort and helped push him back up.  
“Blitz, I've got him. You just lead the way.”

Gabriel made no complaints against it. This was the way it always went for their little trio. It was a sort of unspoken agreement between them that Blitz was their leader. She had an unnatural way of always knowing which way to go.  
Blitz nodded her head in agreement. She was strong in many ways, but if Gabriel fell on her, there was little she could do to prevent it.  
“Like I said, it's not far. . . Come on, let's go.”

They set off. Gabriel slowed them, but they were moving much faster than if they had had to drag his body. Every time he stumbled Dis was there to catch him. It took a lot out of her each time she had to bear his weight, but she didn't let him fall once.  
There was some mad focus in her to make it up to him for having so little concern for him earlier.  
Each time appeared to take a lot out of Gabriel as well. What little strength he had was quickly dwindling away.

Blitz led them along the same path they had followed to Gabriel, going exactly where she suspected he had been headed to before whatever happened to him.  
There wasn't much out here to interest a bunch of dogs. Just snow, trees, rocks, and more snow. A long time ago, when they were barely older than pups, they had discovered something though. It was a place they had frequented almost daily until they grew older.

They moved in silence under the dark sky lit brilliantly by starlight, listening to the sound of the river beside them until they reached the point where the river bent and turned, and they did not.  
Their pace was slowed even more then by the steep hill they had to climb. Gabriel and Dis managed it, but only just.  
Once they mounted the top of the hill, they looked completely spent. Dis was completely winded and Gabriel had nothing left.  
She wasn't there just to catch him when he fell anymore. He now had to lean against her just to stay upright. Dis didn't say anything, but her legs were burning from the strain.

True to her word though, they had not had to go far. It didn't look like much from the outside, but Blitz and Dis had always been extremely inquisitive and that was how they found this in the first place.

Some time ago, for some reason or another, several of the trees had either been knocked down or simply fell on their own. About a dozen or so criss-crossed over and under each other, leaning this way and that. Their branches were a tangled mess knitting them together. Snow had covered most of it all like a perfectly white sheet.  
Amongst all of them, two had fallen against the same tree that stubbornly refused to let go of its grip on the earth. It was a big tree, both tall and thick. Completely unlike the smaller ones it held up. Entirely hidden beneath the web of branches was the den most of their friendship had been forged in.

It looked just as Blitz remembered it. Not much had changed since the last time they had been here and she was relieved to see that it was still there. A familiar sense of wonder filled her.

Struggling with Gabriel's weight, Dis understood what it must be like for that tree now. It felt like he was getting heavier and heavier and she wasn't sure how much longer her legs could take it.  
“Come on, just a little bit farther” she grunted both to herself and to the semi-conscious dog.

Blitz let Dis and Gabriel enter first before crawling in herself. It wasn't much, but it was just what they needed. Somewhere they could take shelter in, warm up, and dry off. Without the wind, it almost felt warm in here.  
The space was much smaller than she remembered, but it was just enough for the three of them.

Gabriel pressed his body against the very back of the den, shivering from the cold that filled him.He felt Dis’s body next to his and he shuddered when he felt Blitz press her body against him. Her touch made his skin tingle.  
In spite of everything that had happened, he smiled when Blitz pressed her muzzle against his. He was asleep before he knew it.  
Dis fell asleep right after him, completely exhausted from carrying Gabriel.

Blitz's mind was swimming with too many questions though. She looked over her injured friend and wondered.  
What was he doing out here anyway? Why hadn't he come home last night? Who or what did that to him?

She thought back to the previous week when he had done the same thing. There had actually been several times where he disappeared and didn't show back up until the next morning.  
Not wanting to seem nosy, she had never asked him about it.  
Now though. . .

Eventually her own fatigue got the best of her. She rested her head against Gabriel and drifted off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I did at least a competent job of communicating these characters to the reader. I really enjoy working with Gabriel's character.
> 
> Also, I know what you're wondering.  
> What the neck? It's Slyth's Story! Where is he?
> 
> To answer that, I will just chuckle to myself and walk away. For now.

**Author's Note:**

> So, what did you think? It's a bit of a sad chapter, but for whatever reason I like writing stories with that tone. It's just where I chose to kick off the story. A lot of things happen because of the fallout of Kodi's death. There's also some significance to Slyth looking similar to Kodi. Keep reading to find out! 
> 
> Also, I'm really looking for constructive criticism, so let me know what you think!


End file.
